How to override template files in WordPress

How to override template files in WordPress

Template files are the files which control how your WordPress site will be displayed on the web. These files draw information from your WordPress database and generate the HTML code which is sent to the web browser.

Every theme has several different template files, where every template has a specific task. Some templates (the header and footer template files for example) are used on all the web pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.

How to override template files

In case you want to customize the HTML of a certain area of your WordPress theme, you can override template files with a child theme. This WordPress feature lets you modify the templates of a parent theme without actually editing them, so that your modifications are preserved when the parent theme is updated. How to create a child theme? has been explained in the previous article.

A child theme can override any parental template by simply using a file with the same name. That means when you want to override a template file, you can copy the original file from the parent theme and paste it in the child theme folder with the same file name. WordPress will then use the file of the child theme instead of the parent template. Afterwards you can edit the file in your child theme folder and make your changes.

Example:

let’s say you want to edit the page.php

open the page.php file and save a copy in the child theme

edit and save the page.php in the child theme

About Pashupatinath Mishra

Pashupatinath Mishra is Software Developer and our Fulltime blogger. He is having good knowledge on the Different Technologies and also having shareable knowledge on Nutrition, Science Topics, Travel and History.